


Stitches

by lonelywalker



Category: Traveler
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-19
Updated: 2011-04-19
Packaged: 2017-10-18 09:28:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/187440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonelywalker/pseuds/lonelywalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes pain is all you have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stitches

Jay won't fight with him anymore, won't raise his voice, won't lay a finger on him even when he hits all the right emotional targets, flicks the switches, digs fingernails into open wounds. They've known each other too long not to know how to make it hurt.

Is a dead father better than one who wants you dead? Is losing love better than never having it at all? On other nights, Tyler knows they both would have cried resentful tears smothered by pillows and blankets and each other's arms. The fear would have driven them closer. It's the one thing they've always had. Tonight, as on every night since the explosion, their faces are dry

Tyler turns away from the campfire, presses his cheek flat against the earth, and tries to sleep. He knows that, only feet from him, Jay's fingers are reaching for the gash at Will's side, ripping stitches apart.

As embers crackle and blankets shift, Will gasps. No matter how tightly Tyler closes his eyes, he can hear all of it, can see all of it.

 _Sometimes pain is all you have_ , his father told him once.

They've known each other too long not to know how to make it hurt.


End file.
